Family Fights To Keep Murderer Behind Bars

Family Fights To Keep Murderer Behind Bars

"This is just like part of me," explains Joyce Angelucci. She has worn her son, Joe's, badge around her neck everyday for the past 23 years.

"This is just like part of me," explains Joyce Angelucci.

She has worn her son, Joe's, badge around her neck everyday for the past 23 years.

"I don't leave home without him. That's the only way I can keep him close to me," says Joyce.

Joe Angelucci, a Fayette County Sheriff's deputy, was killed in the line of duty in November 1988 while trying to serve a warrant on William Bennett. The two struggled and Bennett shot and killed Angelucci with the deputy's own gun. Bennett was found guilty of murder but he was also found to be mentally ill.

"The jury of his peers found him guilty of murder, of murdering a police officer and sentenced him to 120 years in the penitentiary," comments Armand.

The now 56-year-old convicted killer has been granted an early medical parole hearing for later this month and Angelucci's family is going to fight to keep him behind bars.

"For the last 23 years, in order for us to spend time with Joe, we've had to go to Calvary Cemetery and look at the headstone and talk to the grass, so naturally, we're raising a fuss about his release," comments Armand.

Joe's father, Armand, a former Fayette County Circuit Judge, says prison is the best place for their son's murderer.

"If he is terminally ill. There's no better place for him to be as a prisoner, after having committed murder, than in the penitentiary. They've got the hospital. They've got the facilities. They've got the medicine," says Armand.

And Joe's parents believe this may be their last opportunity to keep him in prison.

"We are old. The judge is 91 and I'm 85 and we won't be here for another parole hearing," explains Armand.

Joe's mother says she made one last promise to him on his deathbed and she intends to keep it.

"That promise was that I will see the man who shot you and caused pain and suffering for all of us spends the rest of his life in prison," comments Joyce.